Portal:Feminism

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The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. Some have argued that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women. (Full article...)

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The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men were five volumes of Dionysius Lardner’s 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46). Aimed at the self-educating middle class, this encyclopedia was written during the nineteenth-century literary revolution in Britain that encouraged more people to read. The Lives formed part of the Cabinet of Biography in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia. The three-volume Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain and Portugal (1835–37) and the two-volume Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France (1838–39) consist of biographies of important writers and thinkers of the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. Most of them were authored by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. Shelley's biographies reveal her as a professional woman of letters, contracted to produce several volumes of works and paid well to do so. Her extensive knowledge of history and languages, her ability to tell a gripping biographical narrative, and her interest in the burgeoning field of feminist historiography are reflected in these works. Her political views are most obvious in the Italian Lives, where she supports the Italian independence movement and promotes republicanism. In the French Lives she portrays women sympathetically, explaining their political and social restrictions and arguing that women can be productive members of society if given the proper educational and social opportunities.

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Credit: NASA

Elizabeth II is the Queen regnant of sixteen independent states and their overseas territories and dependencies. Though she holds each crown and title separately and equally, she is resident in and most directly involved with the United Kingdom. She is currently the second longest serving head of state in the world.

The 16 countries of which she is Queen are known as Commonwealth realms, and their combined population is over 129 million. In practice she herself wields almost no political power in any of her realms.

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In this month

2 August 1894 – Birth of Bertha Lutz, a Brazilian scientist and feminist, who helped Brazilian women obtain the vote in 1934
9 August 1956 – National Women's Day (South Africa) commemorates the national march of women on this day to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed their freedom of movement during the apartheid era.
18 August 1920 – Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, specifically intended to extend suffrage to women
25 August 1954 – The National Constituent Assembly of Colombia unanimously recognized the political rights of women and women voted for the first time on 1 December 1957
31 August 1919 – Birth of Amrita Pritam (pictured), the first prominent female Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist, she received the Jnanpith Award, one of India's highest literary honors

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I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormate or a prostitute.

— Rebecca West

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Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (1900 - 1948), born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama, was a novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was an icon of the 1920s—dubbed by her husband "the first American Flapper". After the success of his first novel This Side of Paradise, the Fitzgeralds became celebrities. The newspapers of New York saw them as embodiments of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties: young, rich, beautiful, and energetic. She met F. Scott Fitzgerald at a dance, and despite fights and a prolonged break-up, they married in 1920 and spent the early part of the decade as literary celebrities in New York. The strain of her tempestuous marriage, Scott's increasing alcoholism, and her growing instability presaged Zelda's admittance to a sanatorium in 1930. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. While in a Maryland clinic, she wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz, which was published in 1932. Back in America, Scott went to Hollywood where he tried screenwriting and began an affair with the movie columnist Sheilah Graham. In 1936, Zelda entered the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1948, the hospital at which she had been a patient caught fire, causing her death. After a life as an emblem of the Jazz Age, Roaring Twenties, and Lost Generation, Zelda Fitzgerald posthumously found a new role: after a popular 1970 biography portrayed her as a victim of an overbearing husband, she became a feminist icon.

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... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?
... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?

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...that Marie-Anne Gaboury (pictured) was the first woman of European descent to travel to and settle in the Canadian west?
...that a woman, chamberlain Urszula Mayerin, was among the most influential figures at Sigismund III Vasa's court, signing official state documents in his name and receiving foreign ambassadors during his illness?
...that Peggy McKercher was the first woman to serve on the Corman Park Council?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 2
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 3Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 4Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 5Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 6María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure". (from International Women's Day)
Image 7Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 8Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 9Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 10Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 11Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 12Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 13Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 14Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 15Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 168M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 17Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 18bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 19The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 20Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 21Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 22Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 23Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 24Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 25Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 26Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 27Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 28Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 29John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 30First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 31Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 32Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 33Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 34An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides". (from International Women's Day)
Image 35Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 36A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927. (from International Women's Day)
Image 378M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 38Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 39The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 40Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 41Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 42Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2